The proposals are for a new "gateway to Leamington", made up of what Warwick District Council hopes will be "high-quality landmark buildings".

The council wants to regenerate the 'station area', following the Ford foundry closure and the loss of 400 jobs in July.

The ideas, drawn up by Birmingham firm GVA Grimley with £100,000 of Advantage West Midlands regeneration money, went before Warwick District Council's executive on Thursday.

They aim to "enhance the sense of arriving into Leamington by all modes of transport" and focus on the area around the railway station and along the Grand Union canal-side.

Contained in the 'draft planning brief' is the first suggestion the disused foundry could become an "office-led mixed-use development" - not the like-for-like factory replacement the district council had suggested in the wake of the Ford closure.

The council and Grimley's believe "a single use is not likely to be attractive to a single investor".

The site's "residential potential" will also be examined, despite a conflict with current council policy, and there is also mention of a wildlife park on land to the north sandwiched by railway lines.

Other major ideas concern Old Warwick Road route into Old Town - deemed not to be making "best use of a highly accessible location". It is envisaged as a centre of high-tech research firms, further education buildings and leisure uses, with further investment planned to breath life back into the canal-side as an open green space.

And the station could undergo a transformation too, with a multi-storey car park built and the "unattractive" entrance to the site being moved.

In another apparent conflict with the local plan, whcih runs until 2011, the document also suggests the former Quick's garage site at the western end of Station approach, along with the former coalyard and the current bus depot, should become housing.

The depot would be relocated.

* At the meeting on Thursday, Warwick District Council endorsed a six-week public consultation to which landowners, interest groups and residents will be invited.